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by Iguessnotthendearie



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-26
Updated: 2017-05-26
Packaged: 2018-11-05 00:29:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11002167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Iguessnotthendearie/pseuds/Iguessnotthendearie
Summary: A short account of the first days Belle came to live with Rumpelstiltskin; at the Dark Castle and his home and in Storybrooke. Just a bit of fluff :)





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**Author's Note:**

> I've been MIA on here for awhile, and haven't written on this particular account since I first started. I hope you enjoy, I don't mind taking prompts if anyone has recommendations.

It was strange, bringing someone to live in the Dark Castle. Of course, a few clients showed up there occasionally if they so dared, but no one else lived there. So, when he disappeared from Sir Maurice’s castle in a cloud of smoke, the man’s daughter in tow, Rumpelstiltskin didn’t much know what to do. In traditional Dark One style, his first thought was to send her to stay in the dungeons. Hopefully she could sleep off some of that shock and fear; he could feel it radiating off her as he opened the dungeon door. She may be scared, and she had reason to be- the girl had agreed to go to a place far from home to live with a monster- but he didn’t plan on hurting her.

As he went up to leave her to her crying, he finally felt in somewhat his right mind to wonder what the hell this girl was doing here. He didn’t know why she was what he wanted. The Dark One had no need of a maid; he’d survived hundreds of years in the Dark Castle without one. 

The same word, the L word, kept coming up from his subconscious, and he continued to push it back down. Loneliness.

Being lonely wasn’t important, he hadn’t let it bother him before. Sure, he was alone, but he liked it that way. And suddenly he felt the need to open his castle to a stranger for her to do exactly what magic could do more efficiently than any human?

It didn’t make sense. Not even in his twisted mind, and he knew it was twisted. The irony that he was saving a land from ogres when in a short time the Evil Queen would cast the curse he will have manipulated her into casting would wipe out everyone anyways, and leave them as good as dead, was not lost upon him.

And yet he did it in exchange for her. Why her? He hadn’t quite expected her to come but he wasn’t quite… surprised either. She was brave and kind and smart, he could tell that much already. She was everything he wasn’t.

He was in for trouble with this one. 

 

Storybrooke (many years later):

She came back. 

Not for the first time, his precious Belle came back to him. 

And he was terrified of losing her again. And it would be his fault.

The first time, he let her go, even though every part of him that wasn’t terrified of love wanted to call her back. But he wanted her to be happy, and see the world, and couldn’t stand to see her held captive by the beast any longer. 

But she came back anyways, and that ended terribly, with her in tears and him in a fit of rage and both heartbroken. 

The second time was when he thought she was dead. To see her walk through those doors was like reliving a dream he hadn’t been able to shake since she left the Dark Castle for good. And even after she remembered who he was, would she still want him? Somehow she did, and he would be damned if he was going to let her go again.

But he ruined his potential happy ending yet again by breaking his promise to Belle and going after Regina for locking away his True Love for so long. And he didn’t understand how, but she came back a second time. The more he tried to convince her he was an irredeemable monster, the more she insisted that was why she had to stay, and no one had ever done that before; no one had ever stayed. He never fully let himself believe that it was real, though, and even when he offered to allow Belle to live in his home, he didn’t think she’d want to live with the town monster.

Belle had smiled, and thought for only a few seconds before nodding and giving him a hug and petting his hair, and well that was the end of that.

So now they were pulling up to the great pink house, Belle’s few belongings in the back of the Cadillac. With a small suitcase in one hand and cane in the other, Gold unlocked the front door, allowing Belle to enter first, a suitcase in one hand and a duffel bag in another. 

It took about half an hour for him to show her around downstairs. Belle’s stuff was sitting in the doorway, abandoned, after Gold began to lead her around the house, room by room, giving her the grand tour. No one had ever been in his house before, but he was comfortable because it was Belle, and she had been the last person who had stayed with him in the Enchanted Forest as well. 

“Do you cook?” she asked, walking into the kitchen behind him. “You always used magic to conjure up food before.” The closest Belle ever was to cooking at the Dark Castle was making some tea; Rumpelstiltskin didn’t quite trust his rather clumsy maid to not burn herself trying to create something he could just make appear in a matter of seconds. He knew it made Belle question her usefulness at times, but he admitted to himself now that he was just glad she was there.

“A little. There are some cookbooks here, and I have some cursed knowledge that helps me make some passable meals. I boil a mean pot of spaghetti.” He didn’t mention that he used to cook for him and his son as well; that discussion was for another time. 

When it came to heading upstairs to the bedrooms, Gold felt a bit tense. He made sure she could carry up her two bags, cursing his bad leg. She followed him up, still going on about the small library in his study as they made their way up. He was surprised that she had brought some books from his shop to the house and put them on an emptier shelf, but he was glad she was making herself at home. Home. Already it felt more like a home than just a house with her here. It felt right.

“See, I didn’t know there was an actual book called Beauty and the Beast. And it’s supposed to be us?” She seemed almost as confused as when he tried to explain not only the concept of movies, but also the idea that there was a movie based loosely- and by loosely Gold meant extremely loosely- about their love story. 

“Yes, well, I wouldn’t pay much attention to the original. Villeneuve obviously had no inspiration from our tale. Still, it is yours to read as you wish, Beauty. That’s your name in the story. It’s quite fitting; in fact, it may be the only accurate part of the book.” Belle smiled charmingly, dropping her bags in the hallway and stepping closer to him, wrapping her arms around his neck. 

“And does the beast have glittery gold skin and an affinity for leather?”

“Minx,” Gold growled, but before he could continue Belle let her gaze fall on the first room in the hallway. Gold completely forgot why they were up here. 

“Ah. Yes. This uh, this is my room. I have another room down the hall, a guest bedroom, it can be all your own, nothing like the dungeons,” he quipped, but Belle had already grabbed her stuff and moved into his room. Gold had figured that it was too presumptuous to offer his bed for her to stay in. He didn’t want to force her to share a bed with him after they just started- he supposed it was dating? Dating wasn’t a term in the Enchanted Forest; this worlds desire for titles and fitting societal norms were a concept he would never understand. He wasn’t used to trying to… fit in. 

Of course, he was overthinking the whole thing, but he wasn’t sure if Belle wanted to sleep in the same bed as him. And if they slept in the same bed, then they would do- other things in said bed. He was looking at this from a child’s perspective, he knew, but it still just didn’t make sense why she wanted to be with him. Before he could dig himself further into his hole of self-doubt, Belle sat down on the bed and looked at him standing in the doorway. 

“But I like this one so much better,” she said innocently enough, but her face wore a smirk that made his eyes darken. Then she stood up and walked over to him.

“Rumple, it’s ok that I stay in here, right? Because I want to.” 

How could she read his mind? 

“I’d love if you did, sweetheart. My room is your room.”

“Our room,” she said, leaning up to kiss him.

Our room, he thought, liking the sound of that.


End file.
